Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom’s blood moon has a secret function

Blood Moon in Tears of the Kingdom: The Legend of Zelda is one of the game’s creepiest moments. The sky is painted scarlet and the ghostly aura brings back the zombies. The scene is among one of the scarier parts of the game, but beneath its red ooze, this event hides a practical application: The blood moon functions as a way to refresh the game’s memory use and stop Link from pushing the Nintendo Switch to its limits.

Every 168 minutes the regular blood moon (not glitched), rises. This is equivalent to a week in game time. Link is given a whole new batch of monsters and enemies once the cutscene has finished. Although waiting for the elapsed time is the more common method to experience a blood moon, it isn’t the only way. Players can force a blood moon scene by overloading the Switch’s memory. Fans have dubbed the phenomena a “panic moon” because the game uses the moon as a failsafe to stop things from crashing when players push the game’s memory usage to its limits.

Polygon interviewed MiztrSage in a prior article. He is an expert from the Hyrule Enginnering subreddit. In his work, the builder explained how the game itself can be a limiting factor in what can — or can’t — be built in the game. The builder explained to Polygon how the blood moon is actually used as a way to make up for the Switch’s limitations:

The game has a built-in memory ‘refresher’ which automatically triggers a blood moon once you start ‘pressuring’ the game with, for example, too many objects in Link’s vicinity. This blood moon will then clear all objects that were around you and reset enemies. It’s all because Switch isn’t powerful enough.

Players have documented a few ways to pull off the “panic moon.” In one, a player forced the event by firing several opal-fused arrows with a Lynel bow at a breakable rock wall; a Lynel bow fires three arrows at a time and the opals create a splashing water effect, so firing them at the wall quickly overloads the Nintendo Switch with animations and water effects. Other people have used topaz-fused bows that cause an electric burst when they land.

Tears of KingdomIt is an engineering marvel. Even seemingly “simple” tasks like building a bridge can present vast technical challenges to developers. For our report on the game’s bridge physics, a technical producer talked to Polygon about a particular bridge that can be towed across a lava pool. “The amount of dynamic objects is why there are so many different kinds of solutions to this puzzle in particular. There are so many ways this could break,” the producer said.

In a sense, the blood moon represents the pinnacle of Nintendo’s clever game development. It’s a sneaky but elegant way the developers mask the limitations of this otherwise awe-inspiring game. The blood moon is a great way to add a little creepiness and a sense of somberness to Hyrule after Upheaval. In terms of gameplay, the blood-moon can bring new enemies to life and excitement into the world. On a more technical level, it also prevents the Switch pushing its limits too far. The blood moon turns an obstacle into a benefit.